"THE TRUTH ABOUT THE CZAR."

Otago Witness, Issue 2672, 31 May 1905, Page 71

"THE TRUTH ABOUT THE CZAR."

This is a timely »and rather remarkable j book by Mr Carl Joubert, who has already given us "Russia As It Really Is." One curious point is suggested by this passage : "Bear in mind the following facts: First, that 'public opinion' means 'Nicholas Alexandrovitch' ; secondly, that no man in Russia, with the exception of Tolstoy, dares openly to give expression to opinions, public or private, which are not in accord with 'public opinion.' And that the exceptional a-^-sition of Tolstoy ainonjr the mil-

lions of his fellow subjects is one of the most marvellous things in Russia."

Maxime Gorky, the only other living Russian writer \v\lio has touched the heaix of the world, has been thrown into prison for supporting a protest of workmen. But Tolstoy can say what he pleases, lives securely as a peasant, having renounced in his own proper person all the luxuries and privileges ot a great noble, and modelling his conduct as best he can on the exemplar of Christ. He is the only triumphantly free man in Russia ; and for years his photo graphs have stood side by side with those ot the Czar in the shops on the Nevski Prospect of St. Petersburg.

The aide-de-camp sent by the Grand Duke Vladimir on that fatal Sunday to stop the slaughter before the Winter Palace was Count Fersen, one of the best trusted members of his suite. The name awakens echoes of other riotous scenes before another palace more than a hundred years ago, when a Count Fersen, the ancestor of this Russian ecmeiry, also tried in vain to stop the rising tide of revolution.

It is a Sdoto-Swedish family, this of Ferseu. A Macpherson, outlawed in the reign of Charles I, found distinction a.t the Court of Queen Christina of Sweden, and his descendants served the reigning House of Sweden until th 6 time of Gustavus 111Then, about t'hp year 1780, the heir of the Ferswns — for so their name had been modified — was appointed colonel of the Royal Regiment of Swedes in the service of the King of France. It was a stormy time in French history. Louis ,XVI and his beautiful Queen, Marie Antoinette, had more than nominal need of the Household Guards. They werp reaping the terrible harvest which years of oppression and seifish tyranny had sown. All the world remembers the awful scenes that took place at Versailles, culminating in the midnight hour when the Queen fled before, the hordes that invaded die palace, and the sentries died at her chamber door to give her time to escape. Foremost among those devoted to her service was Count Axel Fersen. When t<he flight of the Royal Family from Paris was arranged, Fersen, disguised as a coachman, drove" the carriage that took the fugitives on their way to Varennes. The attempt failed. The King and Queen were led back to Paris, to prison, and to the scaffold. To the last Fersen watched over them, worked for fckein, and would gladly have died could he have saved the lady ho revered with so knightly a devotion from one of those long hours of her misery. When the worst had befallen he returned to Sweden, where he became Grand Master of the King's Household and Marshal of the Kingdom. Ha lost his life through his fidelity, being torn .to pieces by a Stockholm mob in 1810.

The Grand puke Vladimir was considered the handsomest of the six sons of the- Czar Alexander H, and the greatest favourite of his parents. When., the Czarewitch Nicholas died the idea was discussed in some quarters that the next brother, Alexander, might .-be set aside by the Imperial father's will, and the succession secured to Vladimir, for Alexander had shown himself mulishly averse to,discipline, and seemed altogether of the wrong de^ sciiption to adorn a. throne. His marriage with his deceased brother's fiancee, "Minna," Princess Dagmar of Denmark, however, so changed Alexander for the better — contrary to expectation — that his position remained unaltered, and he eventually succeeded his father. All the sons of Alexander II sided with their mother during the last years of her life, when the ailing Empress felt that she had lost her husband's affections, and msls supplanted by a younger and more beautiful woman. ' The Czarewitcli would occasionally show that he. was not afraid of his father, and that he entertained independent views. He once distinguished himself by objecting to a toast given at the Czar's table, and rising and taking his "Minna" away. The great tragedy which ended the existence of Alexander 11, however, caused mest of that unfortunate autocrat's private she rtcomincs to be forgiven and forgotten by his legitimate children. When the Grand Duk«> Vladimir married Duchess Mario of Mecklenburg-Sohwerm, his older brother, heir to the- Russian Throne, was the father of two sons. It did not seem of much importance, therefore, that the German Princess com in c into the Imperial Fa-milv refused to abiure Lutheranism and enter the Gi-eek Church : yet of late years it has helped to make orthodox Russians more content with their Nicholas II and bis weakly brother Michael that Vladimir's Grand Durhess is of another faith, and that hw eldest son wishes to mavrv a divorcee and first cousin. As possible Empresses — failing- the Alexandrine line — the Greek Church cannot re?ard these illustiiotis ladies with unqualified approval.